INSIDE:

Boogie Down
For Purim

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Living A. Fantasy
On The Field

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The community expands outreach to young adults.

LESLIE ZACK
Special to the Jewish News

B

ack in 1992, Amy was having
some trouble in college and
she wasn't afraid to ask for
help.
The trouble was, there was nobody
around who could help her. No system
existed to help young adults through the
rough spots in the transitions between
high school, college and the real world.
So Amy Rosenblum's mission in life
now is to make sure young people have
the support system that was not there for
her. She has been a clinical social worker
at Jewish Family Service in Southfield for
the past year and is trying to provide
support services to young people.
In the summer of 1992, Rosenblum
left her friends and home in San
Francisco to attend the University of
Amy Rosenblum helps young adults.
Colorado. She was feeling the anxieties
all young adults feel when thrown into
an unfamiliar situation. It wasn't until
she was a junior, though, that she first tried to get counseling at the
college's health center.
"I sat there and cried, just relieved to talk to someone about my
anxiety associated with multiple-choice exams, the problems I was
having with my roommates, and the common college dilemma —
what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"
In the end, the therapist disappointed Rosenblum. She was told
that her health insurance covered only six sessions and that she
should look elsewhere for counseling.
After graduating from college in 1996, Rosenblum went to gradu-
ate school for her masters in social work at Wayne State University,
and dealt with yet another life transition as she went from college to
living with her parents, who had moved to Michigan.
"I was now living in Michigan, slowly entering the social scene. I
missed my college friends and the familiarity of the old neighbor-
hood. And there I was living back at home with my parents, an
adjustment in itself," Rosenblum said.
So when she eventually landed her position at Jewish Family
Service, she got to work on building the infrastructure to help others
through their transitions.
"I found many wonderful social and vocational support systems
through the Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Service and Jewish
Vocational Service," she said.
"I did not, however, find support programs for issues that most
young adults are faced with at this time of life transition: decision-
making skills, decreasing anxiety, effective communication, eating
disorders, adjustment issues and relationship skills."

Rosenblum works to expand outreach through the JFS clinical
departments. -
"We began providing services for the school systems and temple
education departments," Rosenblum said.
JFS offers counseling services, suicide prevention for students and
their parents, interfaith dating workshops, premarital workshops,
and an on-line chat room for children of divorce.
It has combined with Jewish Federation and Jewish Vocational
Service's Pro-Detroit division to offer workshops and support semi-
nars for young adults.
"Jewish Family Service would like to get across to the community
that we are available to help fill this need for the young adult com-
munity, and others as well," Rosenblum said.
"As a young adult, we are looking forward, towards our future,
while at the same time adjusting from the changes in our past. We
do not need to do it alone anymore."
Rosenblum has had interest in social work from the time she was
little.
"My own issues, moving, anxieties about school, my future, would
I ever be 'good enough,' and needing to recognize my own strengths
and abilities," Rosenblum said, helped her to realize her life's goal,
helping others with problems in their lives.
"Acknowledging that we all deal with these issues at different
points throughout our life and beginning my own successful journey
through them allowed me to see that changes are possible,"
Rosenblum said.
Rosenblum said that because she's in her mid-20s, she can work
easily with young adults, ages 17 to 20, because she relates to their
lives and problems.
Among the programs offered by Rosenblum and JFS are: effective
communication, decreasing anxiety and increasing decisionmaking
skills. They also hope to offer an adult daughter and mother work-
shop.
When it comes time for Rosenblum to do what she does best,
offer advice, she often finds herself suggesting different ways for
dealing with situations regarding the same problem.
"Everybody is different. Individually, I suppose it is the power of
the mind. As a group, workshop, family, marital, etc., it is about
establishing good communication skills and appropriate bound-
aries," Rosenblum said.
She finds it important for people to realize that "they are not
responsible for making other people happy, that first they need to
pay attention to their own needs and identity and them to oth-
ers." 111

Copy Editor Howard Lovy contributed to this report.

"Communication 101, That's Not What I Meant" will be held
next at the Birmingham Community House on April 24. For
information about workshops, support groups and counseling
services, contact Jewish Family Service at (248) 559-1500.

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